peterb's 2012

[Arjen]

indeed! a lovely flower and great picture of it!

[peterb]

Echinofossulocactus anfractuosus

020.JPG (194.1 KiB) Viewed 242 times

Experimenting with the new tripod and the timer, taking some macro pics of seedlings at 1 month after sowing.

peterb

[CoronaCactus]

You got that working right
The shine on the Peniocereus is great!

[peterb]

Thanks man! Yeah, I had just sprayed. it's not always that wet.

peterb

[RichR]

Great looking seedlings, Peter. Do you have any tips for germinating austrocactus seeds? I got some from Mesa recently.

Also, at what age/size do you start separating seedlings into their own pots?

[peterb]

The Austrocactus was 2 out of 5 for me, under normal conditions. Moist, humid environment under the dome, 80 during the day and 68 or so at night. I would have preferred 5 out of 5 but I'll try to nurse these two up.

I usually don't separate seedlings until about 12-18 months, sometimes longer for the slow ones. It all depends on size and pot conditions and density.

peterb

[TimN]

Wonderful looking seedlings and great pictures! I find it tough to get good detail on seedlings.

[peterb]

Was out working on 2-5 year old seedlings today. It's so great when they finally start to develop some adult characteristics. Not to mention flower, which a few of them might do this year, from a few years ago.

Bunch of pics:

[Minime8484]

Really nice seedlings! They all look so healthy!

[peterb]

Thanks Tristan. I love growing from seed. Some more general collection photos attached.

[Harriet]

Lovely collection. I envy you your talent with sowing cactus seeds. My luck in that area has been abysmal at best. I get a great crop of newborns that die from one affliction or another and break my heart in the process. So I keep telling myself three things: I am too old to see many of them grow large; if they all grew I would have to move them to much larger quarters; and, this forum is a great place to watch other folk's cacti grow.

Bottom line? Keep posting! I need thrills, even if they must be of the vicarious variety.

[mughal113]

Great work done Peterb. I'm really a fan of your skills.
That is a deadly red color fero, love it.

[gemhunter178]

Wow! Amazing color on those spines, just amazing!

[peterb]

Harriet, the trick to the results I get from sowing seed is I just keep sowing. For every plant that makes it under my conditions, there's probably 50 that die. Maybe that's an exaggeration...not sure. I don't keep records because it's too depressing. I do generally group seed sowing of various species in three categories: down cold, still learning and repeatedly fail. I have found too that if I can move a few of the "repeatedly fail" over to the "still learning categry," all is well.

Re: the super red spines on the fero, that's how it looks post watering. I love how water brings out spine colors.

peterb

[Tony]

There is nothing quite like a wet Ferocactus!
Great looking seedlings.